


heartworm

by callunavulgari



Series: Holiday Writing Challenge '12 [13]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Pete's World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 01:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Donna Noble, oh you are good. Look at you! What are you doing now? Still the best temp in Chiswick? No, oh no, you’re important here, really truly important.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	heartworm

**Author's Note:**

> Day 13 of the Holiday Writing Challenge on tumblr [over here](http://giraffe-tier.tumblr.com/post/35469673249/winter-drawing-writing-challenge). Prompt was 'snowmen'. For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to write Ten.2/Rose + parallel world Donna and have this world's Donna more fully realizing her potential. Also, fun fact, Pete's world Britain has a president rather than a prime minister! Glad I looked that up. Title is from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. The definition is below.
> 
> n. a relationship or friendship that you can’t get out of your head, which you thought had faded long ago but is still somehow alive and unfinished, like an abandoned campsite whose smoldering embers still have the power to start a forest fire.

They find her at a press conference that’s masquerading as a gala. Well, Rose spots her at the conference while the Doctor’s off being brainy with some of the world’s leading scientists. She’s standing just behind the president, hands folded demurely in front of her, her red hair curled at the ends, pressed into some form of pantsuit that manages to look classy rather than gaudy.  
  
Rose hadn’t known her for very long, but she knows enough to think that it’s a little strange how silent she’s being—that she hasn’t found someone to gossip with—her loud, distinct voice gracing the halls. So she does what the Doctor would do if he’d been the one to find her—she sidles up to her side and smiles at her, not faltering when Donna barely glances at her before looking away again.  
  
“Hello,” she greets, holding a hand out. “My name’s Rose.”  
  
Donna doesn’t take her hand and barely blinks when she says, “Donna,” her voice flat and so un-like the Donna from the Doctor’s universe that Rose feels a chill creep down her side.  
  
“So,” she starts nervously. “What brings you here tonight?”  
  
Donna gives her a strangely withering look before nodding to Harriet Jones just five feet away from them, making chat with some other people that Rose vaguely recognizes from the People’s Republic. Heaving a great sigh, she turns to Rose. “You aren’t going to go away are you?” she asks, rolling her eyes skyward.  
  
Rose still feels cold, but she forces a smile to her face, smoothing down the edge of her dress. “Nope!” she answers cheerfully. Donna sighs again, then turns and snaps her fingers to.... the man that’s been standing in the shadows. All right, weird, but Donna’s speaking to him in a low voice before she turns back to Rose. “Walk with me,” she says, striding away with a purpose, her heels clicking on the floor.  
  
She leads Rose outside, where the snow is coming down in heavy sheets. Rose shivers, pulling her shawl more tightly around her shoulders. When Donna turns to face her, her face is blank, set in stone, but when she speaks, it sounds more... Donna then when she’d been standing in the president’s shadow.  
  
“So what the bloody hell do you want? I saw the man you came with, so I know I’m not your type, and nobody makes small talk with the president’s guard, so what do you need so I can get back to my sodding job?”  
  
Rose blinks at her.  
  
She isn’t sure what she would have said, because she never gets the chance. The Doctor—well, John Smith appears at her side, a grin on his face as he wraps his arms around her waist. He doesn’t seem to have noticed Donna, because he presses a kiss to the side of her neck. “Rose! Lovely Rose. How about we make a snowman? What do you think of that? It’ll be brilliant, fantastic, Molto Bene! We—”  
  
He stops just as quickly as he’d started, freezing when he notices Donna staring at them impatiently from a few feet away. “Donna,” he breathes, one of those breathtaking smiles of his stretching his mouth wide. “Donna Noble, oh you are good. Look at you! What are you doing now? Still the best temp in Chiswick? No, oh no, you’re _important_ here, really truly important.”  
  
The smile is starting to look painfully wide and his arms are still locked around her waist, so tightly that it’s starting to hurt. His eyes are damp. “Well, isn't that wizard?” he says, voice rolling the z strangely.  
  
Slowly, she turns in his arms and wraps her arms around him, murmuring quiet nonsense words in his ears as he stares at Donna.  
  
For her part, Donna’s staring at them like they’re both on drugs, so Rose smiles at her. “Donna, I know this seems strange, but you’re in for a bit of a long story. Would you like to make a snowman with us?”


End file.
